


She's a Pirate Too

by BuzzCat



Category: Pirates of the Caribbean (Movies), Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)
Genre: F/M, Soulmate AU, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-07
Updated: 2015-07-07
Packaged: 2018-04-08 02:57:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,087
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4288146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BuzzCat/pseuds/BuzzCat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Elizabeth has words on her leg and Jack has words on his chest, words that belong to each other even if no one else will believe it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	She's a Pirate Too

Elizabeth woke with a start, coughing the seawater out of her lungs. As she took a breath, she was ecstatic to feel the lack of constricting corset. She fell back to the deck and was surprised to find herself looking up to two kohl-lined eyes, staring intently at her bosom. She was about to reprimand him for his impropriety, though the jewelry and bandana suggested that he didn’t know the meaning of the word, but then his fingers reverently picked up Will’s necklace from her heaving chest,

“Where did you get that?” Elizabeth couldn’t say anything. Those were the words she’d awaited her whole life, the very syllables scrawled in chicken scratch up her leg, just below her knee. Before she had a chance, her father was pulling her up and away and the situation very quickly set in: Her soulmate and the man intended for her by God was a pirate. There was a part of her that wasn’t even surprised.

 

Jack pulled the manacles tight against the wench’s throat. She was pressed against him, warm to his touch yet she was still shivering from her little dip in the ocean. He glared at the naval officers and whispered into Elizabeth’s ear,

“Elizabeth—“

“It’s Miss Swann.” she said angrily. Only an iron control of his reactions that had saved his life countless times was able to keep Jack’s jaw from hitting the floor. _Miss Swann_. Bugger. Still, as she attached his affects, Jack couldn’t help smirking at Norrington. The poor bastard had no idea just how badly he’d already lost Miss Swann.

 

On the rum runner’s island, Jack stared out at the ocean as the sun beat down on them. Elizabeth sat beside him, her knees bent so she could rest her arms across the top and her chin atop her arms. It was quiet and he could almost see the smoke from the gears turning in her head, plotting their escape. No matter what her father and the Commodore had tried to do to turn her head to frippery and things like darning and embroidery, there was still enough scheming pirate in her that Jack was starting to understand how the gods that be had picked her for him. He caught her eying his tattoos and pushed his sleeves up, revealing the various markings. Elizabeth wordlessly examined them and finally he said,

“I daresay there’s a marking you’ll find infinitely more interesting.” Without hesitation, Jack pulled his shirt off. Elizabeth blushed at his sudden divestment of attire—though she’d have said the blush was from the heat—and looked away. Jack waited patiently until she hesitantly made eye contact and he tapped at the three words tattooed just over his heart. Elizabeth wasn’t all that surprised to see her handwriting curling across his breast. She nodded and, after a moment of thought, slowly brought the hem of her dress up to reveal Jack’s words on her leg. She saw Jack’s eyes widen for a moment at the sight of her leg, then a tiny smile at the sight of his words on her. His gaze trailed up her body until their eyes met. Elizabeth kept his gaze. She’d been raised in a household that your soulmate was someone to be respected, no matter what the circumstances. Of course, since her soulmate was a pirate, she had a feeling that the rules of their union would be a bit like the Code: used as guidelines.

“Well, Miss Swann,” said Jack, the smirk unfurling into a full-blown smile on his face, “what do you propose we do about these recent developments?” Jack leaned in and so did Elizabeth until their lips were inches apart. She saw Jack’s tongue dart out and swipe across his lips and she watched its path intently. Before his lips touched hers, she said in a sudden start,

“Rum.” Jack sat back so he could fix her with his incredulous gaze. Elizabeth kept her chin up defiantly, “I propose we drink rum.”

 

As they lay on the beach that night, Jack passed out and Elizabeth tipsy at least, Elizabeth couldn’t help but watch her soulmate. He was peaceful in his sleep, but she could still see the teasing smirk in the corner of his mouth, like his dreams were a private joke. Her fingers itched to feel him, to reassure herself that what she lived was true. After all that time, reading about the infamous Captain Jack Sparrow, here he was: passed out in a drunken stupor but also with perhaps a better understanding of the freedom she longed for than anyone else had. Perhaps it was the rum or perhaps it was the exhaustion of the day’s events, but she leaned down and pressed her petal-soft lips to his forehead. He snuffled in his sleep and turned to face her until his head was burrowed close to her side. Elizabeth saw down his shirt where her words stood out against his skin. They were written in a slightly different ink than the rest. Where his other tattoos were faded with exposure to the elements, her words still glimmered on his skin, shining like fresh ink on paper. She leaned over and used her pointer finger to trace the words slowly. Elizabeth imagined she could feel them raised from the rest of his skin. The fire was dying slowly behind her and as it went, she felt the cold air start to seep into her. She sighed and lay down beside Jack in the sand, cuddling close to him. _For warmth_ , she told herself. Still, as she lay beside him, sleep found her easily.

The next morning, Elizabeth was surprised to find their positions had shifted in the night. Jack was still passed out, thank God, but his arm was wrapped tightly around her waist, pulling her upper body flush against his. She had a hand hooked around his back as well, so Elizabeth couldn’t say that she had gone unwillingly. Their legs were a tangled mess, twined together so closely that she was afraid that any movement would wake Jack. However, nature’s call made her unwind her legs and take care of business before digging up the rum to burn. As the smoke rose, she looked back at Jack. She was almost excited for him to wake up, to see what she had done. It was time to find out what could ever strike up love between a pirate and a governor’s daughter.

.

(Answer: When the governor’s daughter is a pirate too.)

 


End file.
